Dave's thoughts on whatever happens to be passing through the transom of his mind.

20131025

What do I do?

I recently discovered, thanks to the wonder of YouTube, and old game show from the 50s and 60s, called What's My Line. It has a moderator, who attempts to clarify (or cloud) the issue, and four panelists who try to guess the profession of the guest. Essentially, the panelists ask yes/no questions of the guest, who must answer honestly (well, with one or two exceptions), with the questioning stopping with ten no answers, a correct identification, or occasionally on time (or when the moderator decided the questioning was going nowhere.

It's interesting on several different levels. First, it's a hilarious show. The moderator, John Daly, was very funny, and did a great job of keeping things going. It also had guests with some very odd jobs (dice pip painter, broadway orchestra conductor, rockette, journalist, rocket scientist, crocodile hunter), some of which led to some really interesting lines of questioning. And many of those odd jobs no longer exist, which makes for some interesting social commentary. Also, it was very noticeably a New York City show; something which doesn't happen anymore. Another striking thing about it was the jokes are generally quite erudite and sophisticated. Low-brow humor appears only by implication.

And eventually, they started having celebrities (singly, or in groups) appear on the show, mostly with the panelists being blindfolded. This provided some interesting insight into those celebrities.